1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to body massagers, particularly to a body massager that can be gripped with two hands by a user.
2. Background Art
Power operated massagers are often used to treat muscle tension and fatigue. Massagers that exert a percussive effect on the body may be preferred over massagers which generate a rubbing action, since the latter type of massager can cause irritation or other discomfort to the recipient. Examples of percussive body massagers include U.S. Pat. No. 6,500,135 B2 issued to same assignee on Dec. 31, 2002 and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2003/0028134 A1 published on Feb. 6, 2003, also assigned to same assignee, which are both incorporated by reference herein.
Prior art massagers typically include an elongate arm or handle to be gripped by a user for orienting the massage elements or region upon a desired target area. Prior art massagers impart a massage effect upon the target area and consequently experience a resultant effect upon the massager. This resultant effect creates a moment upon the elongate arm making it difficult for the user to orient or maintain the orientation of the massage region. This difficulty may also minimize the massage effect experienced by the user if the user cannot firmly maintain the orientation of the massager. This difficulty relates to many massagers of the single arm type, including percussive massagers, vibratory massagers and the like.
The prior art has approached the aforementioned difficulty by providing massagers having a pair of arms, or a unitary arm with a pair of handles with the massage region oriented centrally relative to the handles. Some of these prior art massagers include a rigid pair of arms or a rigid unitary arm that minimizes the applicability of the massager, and does not provide a variety of grasping orientations. Other prior art massagers include a pair of bendable arms extending from the central massaging unit. However, the bendable arms require the user to bias the arms during operation. Thus, the user must exert an effort sufficient to manipulate the orientation of both arms and concurrently overcome the resultant effect imparted upon the massager.
Accordingly, it is a goal of the present invention to provide a simplified, low-cost massager providing more than one ergonomic handle location to be gripped by a user and to be manipulated by the user to a selected orientation relative to the massage unit without requiring a constant bias applied upon the handles to maintain the selected orientation.